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Maori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell says it’s abhorrent that some schools are finding underhand and unlawful ways to suspend and expel students.

A report by YouthLaw Aotearoa says disproportionate numbers of Maori are caught up in so-called kiwi suspensions, where they are covertly encouraged to withdraw from school.

Mr Flavell says when he was teaching he took the suspending pupils extremely seriously, but it appears some schools are abdicating their responsibility.

Those schools have got a responsibility to look after those children or we are setting them up for failure across the board. I am disappointed that practice is continuing but it is probably understandable because it has been the same for the past 20 to 30 years, and some of those schools need to be held to account," he says.